It’s been a pretty busy week, and I haven’t had as much time to blog as I had hoped. There are a couple days worth of progress to share, and the next phase is the forms for the concrete foundation. It’s really impressive how they can make the forms so precise. It looks like a big mess at first glance, but when you get up close, you can see just how precise it is all put together. Like a surgeon. The light blue stuff you see on top of the gravel is insulation. We are going to have concrete floors which will be created with the same pour as the foundation. The concrete will be poured on top of the insulation which will keep the floor at room temperature, unlike a garage floor which can get pretty cold.

Tomorrow is the inspection, so hopefully everything checks out ok! More soon.

This was probably the least exciting day so far. No offense to our wonderful plumber. He did a great job and is super nice, but there is just not as much visual gratification when it comes to laying down water and sewer pipes. Next up is the concrete foundation and floor, so maybe that will feel more like a party.

We used to have 2 storage sheds in our backyard. But in order to start building the office, we needed to tear down the shed behind our house. Tearing down that shed meant we were losing a lot of necessary storage space, so we then had to tear down the other shed, and build something more substantial to make up for the space we were losing. Still following?

Here is a before and after picture of the first shed we ripped down. As you can see, I am not going to miss that thing. It was basically a spider cave. We actually installed that huge window we bought on craigslist in there. It seemed like it was a good idea at the time. Nichelle wanted to grow seeds out of the weather, but we didn’t think about the fact that the window blocked UV rays which makes it difficult to grow anything. I know, real smart.

That’s Ian from Gigantic Squid with the Hammer of Thor. Turns out he’s not just a retouching wizard, but he can also destroy things with surgical precision.

After watching Ian for a while, I decided to speed up the process, and knock it down with my hands. No big deal.

The new storage shed is still not finished yet, but here are a few images from the early stages on. I was pretty nervous about taking on this project since I have never done any construction before. After doing more than enough research, I began cutting 2×4′s and nailing them together. I was surprised how easy it was, as long as you think everything through before you begin cutting and nailing. Over preparing is ok when it comes to this kind of stuff. Measure twice and cut once as they say. I also had help from some good friends, and overall it has been a really fun project.

Nichelle and I have dreamed of building an office in our backyard, off and on, ever since we bought our house almost 5 years ago. We have talked about a million different ideas and locations in the yard. A couple of years ago, we even bought a huge 300 pound picture-window on craigslist to put in the office, which we never ended up building. Those who know me well, know I am a dreamer, and can often be impulsive. Thankfully, however, I am not so impulsive when it comes to big decisions like this.

Over the past several months, we began discussing a backyard office once again, but this time, everything seemed to fall into place. We have had 5 years to think, research, and let it all sink in. Now, I can honestly say I am glad we didn’t act on some of our previous ideas. Our needs and lifestyle has changed quite a bit over the past few years, and I think we now have a better idea of what we want and need moving forward. As I look out the window at the huge hole in our backyard, I am pretty sure we are not going to back out this time.

We played with the idea of building a prefab office, and we also interviewed architects and contractors. In the end, we went with a company called Backyard Box and we are so excited. Backyard Box is a new company run by contractor Sloan Ritchie, specializing in prefab offices and homes. The designs are by Jim Burton of Blip, and as soon as we saw pictures of his work, we knew we found what we had been looking for. Jim and Sloan have worked with us over the last 2 months to create a custom office, which ended up being even better than I expected. That says a lot coming from a perfectionist. It will look a bit different from the image above, but this is the unit it was based on and the style is obviously the same. We will not be able to do prefab for a number of reasons, so this will be a good old fashion construction project. It still has not sunk in that it is actually happening. Although, the masonry drill putting holes in our foundation at 8:00am helps reality set in a little.

Having a work space where you can be creative and away from distractions is really important. Since this is something I am extremely excited about, I thought I would blog about the building process as it unfolds.

Many of you have asked me to blog about this process as you are interested in doing something similar. I hope it is something you enjoy. For those who are not so interested, I hope you will bear with me. It won’t go on forever. :)

So far, we have ripped a roof off of our patio. Tore down two sheds, built a new shed, cut down a few bushes and trees, and finally the construction crew has begun digging. It’s hard work, and very time consuming, but I have really enjoyed all of it. I love working with my hands, and our backyard has provided no shortage of things to do. No wonder I have felt so busy lately.

I recently did a shoot with Jane Pauley (NBC, AARP) and she commented at one point that the brain is happiest when it sees the hands working. I don’t know if that is a scientific fact, or who to credit that statement to, but I think there is a lot of truth to that. I find that I am happy when I am working in our yard, and I can see tangible results. But, just to be clear, I’m not working on this office. I’ll leave that to the professionals.